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Senegal's President Convinces Sudan to Restore Ties with Chad

October 27, 2009 5:06 PM

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Senegal's President Convinces Sudan to Restore Ties with Chad

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Senegal's president, Abdoulaye Wade, has convinced his Sudanese counterpart
Omar al-Bashir to reestablish diplomatic relations with Chad. The
effort is Mr. Wade's latest attempt at diplomacy in the turbulent
relationship between Sudan and its neighbor. For VOA, Brent Latham has
more from our West and Central Africa bureau in Dakar.

A
spokesman for Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade says President Omar
al-Bashir of Sudan has accepted what he called a "brotherly appeal"
from Mr. Wade to restore diplomatic ties with neighboring Chad.

The
spokesman, Amadou Sall, says the two leaders had an extended phone
conversation, and Mr. al-Bashir accepted the recommendation to restore
relations.

"President Wade talked to President Omar al-Bashir
during all this day, we had a long distance conversation and it was the
advice of the president, and now it is done," he said.

Relations
between Chad and Sudan have a turbulent recent history. Each state has
accused the other of supporting rebel factions acting across their
respective borders.

Sudan broke diplomatic ties with Chad
after a rebel attack on the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on May 11.
At the time, Mr. al-Bashir claimed the enemy combatants were Chadians
supported by Chad's government.

Chad blames Sudan for supporting
a rebel uprising in Eastern Chad that sacked the Chadian capital,
N'djamena, last year, and threatened to do so again last month.

The
leaders of the two countries came together at a meeting of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference states held in Dakar in March.
There, Mr. Wade brokered a deal to work towards stability and peace.

Sall
says the framework established by those meetings provided the impetus
for Mr. Wade's current effort to establish a dialogue between Chad and
Sudan.

"The agreement of Dakar created a council of
reconciliation and made the council to control the movement between the
two borders," he said. "And this group, the council, met yesterday in
Dakar and they encouraged President Wade to ask [the leaders] to
consider restitution and establish a friendship relation."

The
council meeting in Dakar was mediated by Senegal Foreign Minister
Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, and included the Sudanese and Chadian foreign
ministers.

Sall says Mr. Wade will continue his efforts at
bringing the two sides together. He says Mr. Wade is determined to
bring both sides to the table yet again. Mr. Wade, a lawyer and
long-time opposition leader, has been president of Senegal since 2000.